May 9, 2017 - 2017 marks a sad milestone. Today is election day in BC, but it also marks 25 years since the early morning explosion that ripped through the Westray Coal Mine in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, killing an entire shift of 26 men, 11 of whose bodies were never recovered. They remain entombed in the underground wreckage of the mine, now covered by a memorial park where a monument stands as a lasting tribute to all 26 sons, fathers, brothers, uncles and friends. Many of them had signed USW union cards.

As you know, the USW has never stopped fighting for justice for the Westray families, and for the thousands of families across Canada whose loved ones have been killed at work. Since 2004, we have had the Westray Law, which amended the Criminal Code of Canada to hold corporations criminally accountable for causing preventable death and injury on the job.

Today, the struggle continues as we fight to have that law better enforced across the country. Too many employers still get away with practices and negligence that results in workers being killed. Christy Clark isn’t making work safer. She botched investigations into sawmill explosions, ignored enforcing the Westray law.  It’s time for British Columbians to vote to elect a government who will stop the killing and enforce the law.

Voting information available here: http://142.34.128.33/index.php.

In Solidarity,

United Steelworkers Local 1944